I missed last week’s post… sorry bout that. I have a few interviews going on and I thought one of them was going to get done last week. We are stuck on question 17… So close, and yet so far… So yesterday I was listening to the Nutskanker Sweet by the Reigning Monarchs. It is a surf/ska christmas song mashing up some Nutcracker stuff (“The Dance of the Sugar Plum Ferries”, and “The March of the Nutcracker”) and thinking something akin to “Music… yeah.” I immediately thought that a great topic is “music,” just simply “music.”

I guess I touched on a nerve because I got soooo many good responses, so many that I will be answering questions this week about music, and next week as well. For those of you who have sent in questions… if don’t get to your questions today, I will next week.

Thanks this week go to Lsig, Lord Pithy, Ringer, and Newbold. Without further ado… The questions.

1. Do you and your spouse share taste in music?

Somewhat. Her tastes tend to span more genres where mine tends to focus on quirky humorous stuff as well as dour grunge and folk-rock.

2. Have you evolved your musical tastes, or do you still like your favorites from high school/college?

I still like many of the things from the high school/college years, but recently I listened to a boat-load of songs from that era that were decidedly grungy… I was amazed at how just not good many things I used to like are. That being said, the really good bands are still really good. I have been trying to stay somewhat current with some musical tastes, but since I am old, I have found that I consider my “new” music to be about 5 years old.

3. What is your favorite “Wailing along in the car” tune?

I have found myself singing along with “Obvious Bicycle” by Vampire Weekend as of late. I also find myself bobbing my head in a rather cliche fashion to Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.” Then I can always find myself listening to the aforementioned Reigning Monarchs.

4. Do you enjoy live music? Big or small venues?

Nope, I find live music to be too expensive and have too many people.

5. Do you get songs from your kids’ shows stuck in your head? I sing "Sofia the FIrst"songs incessantly.

Of course I do… but more than anything I get bad earworms stuck in my head from YouTube vids the kids love. The worse of which is “Baby Monkey (Going Backwards on a Pig).” At my previous job, I once caught a co-worker humming “Fruit Salad” by the Wiggles (who my wife says are really a much better concert band). I busted him on this and then he made fun of me for recognizing it. One of us died that night… and I am writing you.

6. Can you please explain for me what distinguishes rock music from pop music from bubblegum pop music?

Rock: strong presence of a lead guitar in the bridge, typically made up of lead guitar, bass guitar, and drums

Pop: Add in a keyboard and the music becomes more danceable.

Bubblegum Pop: More synth, the drums become a drum machine, the acts become younger, and potentially more auto-tuning.

7. What would be your dream pairing of musical piece with instrument (for instance, “Darth Vader’s Theme” on slide whistle)?

Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon don’t even like “Beach Blanket Bingo.” It is horrible.

11. American Pie, great song. American Cake, never heard of it. Suck it again cake eaters!

This is less a question and becoming more of statement of one’s personal philosophy… but is American Pie that great of a song? Iconic, surely, but “Great?” That might be pushing it.

12. Favorite type of music?

I tend to enjoy music that has a bit of grungy tones with some unhappiness.

13. Genius gets tossed around too much, anyone in music you think has earned the title?

Prince is genius musically. There are boatloads of really good and great artists out there, but few can be considered Genius in popular music.

14. Beiber or Typhoid Fever, CHOOSE!

One thing that I have found is that when looking at set theory and the union or intersection of sets as well as the operations that generate mutually exclusive sets, the nullset is always a member of the resultant set. So, say the universal set for this question is popular music and the sets of Justin Beiber and Typhoid Fever. I choose the nullset. When optioned with two poor options in a set theory question, I choose the third option or nothing. (BTW’s I was not and am not aware of anything by Typhoid Fever… oh wait, you meant the disease… in that case I definitely choose nothing)

15. “And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make” is that true? (Thanks Chris Farley … oh, and the Beatles)

That is not quite true, there are many people who are incapable of love who are loved by people. They end up taking way more love than they make… psychopathic jerks.

16. There’s a theory the key of earth is f#. Thoughts on that?

F# is is awesome… I am just glad it is not in b minor because that is the key of the fugue

17. I Iike just about all music, but foreign rap is god awful. Is there a type of music you disdain?